Asian Dust Transport in China: A Palaeoclimate and Modeling Study

We evaluate the ability of the regional chemistry/aerosol climate model REMOTE to simulate Asian dust transport over China in response to changing Asian monsoon conditions. Applied to years of different monsoon strength, model results are compared to dust fluxes measured in a 9.5 kyr peat core from NW Szechuan. This palaeoclimate archive provides an uninterrupted history of Holocene monsoon conditions and dust fluxes to the Eastern Tibetan Plateau and represents a solid long-term framework for evaluating model responses to climate change. We present preliminary model results for selected months of the year 1996, which displayed normal monsoon conditions. Simulation results suggest that dust deposition to the Eastern Tibetan Plateau is dominated by wet deposition during monsoon and pre-monsoon months. Model deposition fluxes agree within a factor of two with fluxes from relevant sections of the peat core, providing encouraging new data in the bid to assess future impacts of dust on climate. The yearly simulations must henceforth be carried out under dry and wet monsoon conditions and compared to relevant sections of the core.